–Defiance in Lahore
The dust had barely settled from the blast on former KP chief minister Akram Durrani’s convoy that there was a much deadlier attack in Mastung. While Durrani was thankfully unhurt, four people did die in that attack. The death count in Mastung has tipped over the triple digits and also includes the death of Siraj Raisani.
The terrorists have struck again, and in increasingly close proximity. There are still a good 10 days to go until the polls, and the activity and the crowds are only going to get bigger. With the clear inefficiency that the caretakers have displayed, one worries for politicians and their supporters alike. But that is all one can do. Worry and pray for the best.
BACK AT LAST:
You know something is up when Fawad Chaudhry is the voice of reason at a press conference. Not to say that he was particularly articulate or gracious, just that even he had realised how over the top the caretaker Punjab government had gone in trying to snub the PML-N’s rally set out to receive Nawaz Sharif.
History will not remember Chief Minister Hasan Askari Rizvi in kind words. And neither will PTI Chairman Imran Khan. The entire City was on edge as Lahore found itself without phone and internet connections. Containers blocked major roads and everyone waited with bated breath as the Sharifs made the long trek from London to Lahore with an extended stopover at Abu Dhabi.
The chief minister would do well to remember he is an interim. It is bad enough when a democratically elected person puts political activists behind bars and impedes freedom of expression. It is worse when someone meant to administer an election so blatantly takes a political stance.
However much to the chief Minister’s chagrin, and much to Imran Khan’s, no amount of imprisonments, blockades and house arrests could stop the sheer force that the League managed to display.
Tens of thousands followed Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif as he made his way to Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Airport to greet his brother. The optics, of course, were grand. Hamza Shehbaz drove the car himself with his father on the passenger seat as the sea of Leaguers surrounding them quite literally broke through barriers, hijacking government placed containers and opening the roads as the police looked on helplessly in the face of the wave of people.
In Imran Khan’s words, it was a tsunami.
True, Mian Shehbaz and the League never managed to get to the airport. His brother and niece were arrested and shifted to Islamabad without a chance to make one last stand in the midst of adoring masses. But this was still a win for the League. Even with restrained coverage, that was one hell of a crowd, especially from a party that hasn’t always been good at gathering them.
They may lose out in places, but if this proves anything, it’s that the League is going nowhere in Punjab. If you try hard enough, you can just almost make out Imran Khan grinding his teeth there somewhere in the distance.